‘Seven Revolutions’ Presentation to Explore How Current Global Trends Will Effect the World by 2025

Erik Peterson is senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a nonpartisan and nonprofit Washington D.C.-based think-tank established in 1962.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo.,

Feb. 2, 2006 – Do you ever wonder what the world will look like in 2025? It seems impossible to plan for what our planet will look like in 20 years, but Erik Peterson’s organization is giving it a try. To hear what they have to say, attend Peterson’s upcoming presentation, “Seven Revolutions – Looking out to the Year 2025,” on March 1 at Southeast Missouri State University.

Tickets are now on sale for the presentation, which will be held at 7 p.m. in Glenn Auditorium of Southeast’s Dempster Hall. Tickets can be purchased at the Show Me Center Box Office for $10 in advance and $15 at the door, or from ticketmaster.com. To contact the Show Me Center Box Office, call (573) 651-5000. Box office hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. The Show Me Center accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express. There are also a limited number of free student tickets available through the Office of Continuing Education.

Peterson is senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a nonpartisan and nonprofit Washington D.C.-based think-tank established in 1962. He also is the director of the CSIS Global Strategy Institute, which is dedicated to research on long-range strategic issues and to developing innovative educational programs geared to leaders in government, business and other fields. As part of the institute’s research, Peterson heads the “Seven Revolutions Initiative,” an internationally recognized effort to identify and project global trends out to the year 2025.

The “Seven Revolutions Initiative” considers the long-term implications of global trends at work today, and addresses the question of what the world will look like in 20 years, providing a comprehensive outline of the major challenges that lie ahead. During his “Seven Revolutions” presentation, Peterson will focus on CSIS’s findings of the seven areas in which change is expected to be most “revolutionary”:

Technology – CSIS believes there will be the three major drivers of technological change over the next 25 years: computation, genomics and nanotechnology.Population – In effect, many of the populations of developed countries will actually be smaller in 2025 than they are today. Over the same period, the developing world will experience an enormous youth bulge. Reconciling these two demographic movements is the priMar. challenge of the revolution in population. Resource Management – Food, energy and water will work in concert with many of the other revolutions (particularly population and conflict) to affect the overall health of the environment over the next 25 years. Preventing environmental degradation, which has affected many parts of the industrial world, May become a greater consideration in industrial and agricultural practices.Knowledge – Economists have traditionally pointed to three “factors of production”: land, labor and capital. In the information economy that is materializing, all of these will be overshadowed by a new and primary factor: knowledge.Economic Integration – The growth rate has steadily increased an average of more than 3.6 percent annually in the last 25 years, and is expected to continue through 2050. The benefits of this level of integration apply to developed and developing countries alike. In fact, the United Nations Development Program maintains that developing countries have achieved in 30 years what the industrialized nations took 100 years to accomplish.Conflict – A threat looming over nations is cyber-warfare. Armed with the tools of cyber-warfare, sub-state, non-state or even individual actors are now powerful enough to destabilize targeted states and societies. Governance – The global revolutions CSIS has identified will severely test the capacity of organizations, from non-governmental organizations to corporations to international organizations and national governments.

In addition to his responsibilities as senior vice president of CSIS, Peterson also holds the CSIS William A. Schreyer Chair in Global Analysis, an endowment named in honor of Merrill Lynch Chairman Emeritus and CSIS Executive Committee Member Bill Schreyer, with the goal of fostering strategic thinking and leadership into the new century.

From 1989 to 1992, Peterson was director of research at Kissinger Associates, a geopolitical and economic consulting firm headed by former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger that provides advisory services to private international businesses.

Peterson holds a master of business administration degree in international finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He received a master’s degree in international law and economics from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University (SAIS), and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Colby College. He also holds a certificate of Eastern European studies from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and a certificate in international legal studies from The Hague Academy of International Law in the Netherlands.

Peterson is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum, a member of the board of the Center for Global Business Studies at Pennsylvania State University, a member of the advisory board of the Global Capital Markets Center at Duke University, and a member of the national advisory board of the Center for the Study of the Presidency. He also serves on the jury for the award in national security reporting conferred each year by the Gerald R. Ford Foundation.

For more information on Peterson’s “Seven Revolutions” presentation, contact Southeast’s Office of Extended and Continuing Education at (573) 986-6879.